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03/01/2005 09:25:09 PM · #1 |
I have decided to buy my first digital SLR camera. I am very familiar with 35mm film SLR's, most notably the Canon line. My AE-1 was my first and gave me many, many years of use. A Pentax MV-1 was my long time backup.
I do not take any photos today that are sold, used in books, etc. Everything I do now, and for as long as I can see in the future, will be for personal use. Thus, going very high end for a camera really doesn't make financial sense to me.
I have narrowed down my choices to a few: Canon Digital Rebel (most likely the 300D, maybe the XT... maybe), the Pentax *ist DS, or the Nikon D70.
I am leaning towards the Pentax *ist DS mainly because of the price that I will need to spend on lenses in the future. I have not seen one personally, but I understand that they have kept the same K/KA series lens mount that they have used one nearly all of their previous SLR cameras. That will help in lens costs down the road as I can buy used lenses much cheaper. I still have a couple of decent Pentax lenses (fixed 125mm and a 75-300mm telephoto), so that helps drop my total overall price point. I have no Canon lenses left, and have never owned any Nikon equipment.
Are there any things that anyone here knows about that should push me off of buying the *ist DS (it also can be set to a 3200 ISO), or anything overwhelming about either of my other choices that would put them over the top of the *ist DS?
Thanks to anyone that has used these... |
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03/01/2005 09:27:29 PM · #2 |
You say it's for personal use, but what about when you're driving along, and you capture something as rare as the 9/11 attacks on the WTC? Then you'll wish you had a decent camera.
Not that the 300d or the *ist can't, just saying, don't sell yourself short, you never know when you are going to shoot something someone's going to want.
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03/01/2005 09:41:42 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by TacoVendor:
I do not take any photos today that are sold, used in books, etc. Everything I do now, and for as long as I can see in the future, will be for personal use. Thus, going very high end for a camera really doesn't make financial sense to me.
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If you have no interest in upgrading and you already own some Pentax lenses, I see no reason why you would need to consider any thing other then the *ist, except that maybe the name looks silly.
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03/02/2005 05:59:38 PM · #4 |
I agree that they could have come up with a better name.
Thanks for your replies. I was hoping that someone with some experience on the Pentax line along with at least one of the others would happen across this. After looking much further into things today, I am pretty sure it will be the Pentax unless I come across something that pushes to me to one of the others very hard. |
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03/02/2005 06:03:16 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by TacoVendor:
I agree that they could have come up with a better name.
Thanks for your replies. I was hoping that someone with some experience on the Pentax line along with at least one of the others would happen across this. After looking much further into things today, I am pretty sure it will be the Pentax unless I come across something that pushes to me to one of the others very hard. |
Well, if you care to hear my deciding factor of the rebel over the d70, then here goes...Obviously, price was a factor (although not that much)...I think canon has better glass and it's more inexpensive in the long run. Plus, I figured if I really got into things, I'd rather have an arsenal of canon glass laying around for a higher end dslr than some nikon's as I think canon has the market on the higher end.
I realize the d70 and the *ist are different, but you might want to think about those things as well.
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03/02/2005 06:22:05 PM · #6 |
Im pretty happy with the istDS, if you have pentax lenses already I think nsbca is right - there's certainly nothing to scare you off. It's small, light, and at least in australia cheaper than a digital rebel in spite of the greater feature set.
I might have gone with one of the big two except I'm still studying so I won't be buying an array of lenses, so even if pentax hasn't come out with competitive dSLR's when it's time for me to upgrade I won't have a huge amount of kit going to waste anyway. As it was, the istDS was far and away the best value camera out here.
Edit: oh, not that it tells you much about image quality etc at 640 pixels - but if you want to look my last four challenge shots were taken with this camera. Thought I'd point that out in case you checked some of my first entries, some of which have pretty shoddy image quality!
Message edited by author 2005-03-02 18:26:50. |
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03/02/2005 06:35:57 PM · #7 |
Given that you already have an investment in lenses, there's nothing about your needs that suggests you should switch. I think the only decision you need to make is whether you want it with the kit lens or without .
-Terry
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